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Uffie

 
 
All Acting Regiment
11:16 / 21.11.06
So, basics:

Uffie (born Anna-Catherine Hartley in Miami, USA), is an American musician.

In 2006, she debuted with the singles Pop the Glock and Ready to Uff, released on French electro label Ed Banger Records, after getting a limited promo release on Arcade Mode in January. Both singles contained elements of electronic dance music, rap and hip-hop. Uffie's singles have been produced by French electro artists Feadz and Mr. Oizo as well as a remix by label-mate SebastiAn. Her music was first made available to the public in late 2005 on her MySpace page.

Two more new tracks from Uffie, Hot Chick and In Charge became available through online MP3 blogs in July 2006.


And here's a myspace which should have tunes.

So, rilly good isn't it? She sounds like she's having an awful lot of fun, the beats have this weird disjointed noisy thing going on and you can dance to them, the whole thing sounds, I dunno, improvised, on the spot, but in a good way, in the way that certain Sun Ra does. Hang on, isn't that a completely different style of music? Yes, so what!

I like the swearing too, the frankness, the sort of intonation I guess you'd call it on certain words. I like the way she can say "I'm ready to fuck" in many different ways. In short, I'm probably a bit late to the party, but I love Uffie, and so do you.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
15:56 / 22.11.06
Come on.
 
 
trixie
21:07 / 22.11.06
She's ace. Pop the Glock was originally my favourite but I love Hot Chick now. I enjoy playing in when djing and seeing people dance about because they think it's MIA (Robyn is also another good one for this)

She's played Fabric a couple of times but I've never actually managed to make it down.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
07:47 / 23.11.06
Yes to MIA and Robyn also. More on this after work.
 
 
some guy
18:57 / 24.11.06
Uffie feels like a calculated attempt to appear improvisational to me; I get a big whiff of "carefully manufactured and marketed" from the whole thing, although that could come from knowing people trying to set up a party to "sell" Uffie as the next big/little thing to the LA hipster scene.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
13:51 / 25.11.06
Uffie feels like a calculated attempt to appear improvisational to me

Does this affect your enjoyment of the music, though?
 
 
some guy
19:59 / 25.11.06
Usually not. What grates about Uffie is that rather than doing the manufactured thing unapologetically - like Sugababes or similar - it's sold to us as "real" and "underground." Which makes the whole enterprise seem more offensive somehow.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
21:27 / 25.11.06
Ah, but only if you buy it specifically because it's "underground"...
 
 
some guy
00:34 / 26.11.06
Sure.
 
 
8===>Q: alyn
03:55 / 26.11.06
Ever heard of Chicks on Speed?
 
 
petunia
11:35 / 26.11.06
Chicks on Speed Yes!

They rock my electric (paper, home-made) socks!

I heard one uffie track and it seemed enjoyable, but if we're playing comparison games - Chicks on Speed definitely win.

Turn of the century is a favourite, for its mad gabba-style fast brutality. Kaltes Klares Wasser tickles my dirty turn-on switch something good. Song for a Future Generation is amazing and silly, and amazing for its silliness. The live version of Eurotrash Girl with Miss Kittin gets 10 cool-points and makes me sad that i still haven't seen them live. The Stripper is just monumental and makes me want to start wars in futuristic cities.

99 cents is pretty good, but i prefer their earlier stuff. They make more mistakes. There's a great sense of humour and lack of self-importance that flavours all of their music. It tastes nice.

Chicks on Speed Yes!
 
 
All Acting Regiment
13:33 / 27.11.06
COS, oh yes, oh yes...
 
 
All Acting Regiment
13:34 / 27.11.06
And CSS of course.
 
 
All Acting Regiment
11:43 / 07.09.07
Here is an interview with herself, of which I shall quote some:

What’s it like to be the only female on the Ed Bangers label?"

"It's not weird being the only girl, but obviously being the baby of the family means I get treated a little differently. It's nice being young and having nice guys looking out for you. The label definitely has a family vibe in that way and we are all pretty close - regardless of whether we are making tracks together or not. Some of us are closer than others but everyone really gets along."

Who would you say are your biggest inspirations?

"I really love Missy, The Neptunes, Etta James, Sundance, Audio Two and many other names. I’d eventually like to work with lots of different artists as mixing things up really brings that freshness."

When is your own album due?

"Late this year or early 2008. I wanted it to be done soon but it’s more important that I’m 100% happy and satisfied. It’s better to take time out and really kill it. Most of the singles have been fun dance tracks but I’m getting older and things are changing so I really want to show that I also have a serious side. I do love the fun, dirty tracks but there’s much more to me than that and an album presents an opportunity to experiment."

You’ve said that you started making music lacking a certain amount of confidence. Are you combating that now? Do you feel more secure about what your abilities and strengths are?

"I came to music just making a fun track and never planned or dreamed that any of this would happen. It was especially tough in the beginning: I was surrounded by some of the world’s best producers in my opinion and I was playing with 2 Live Crew and meeting all these crazy people. In a way, it all came so fast. But that just made me pick up my pace. This year has been incredible and some major things have happened. I am actually a pretty shy person if I’m not 100% comfortable in a situation so doing all the shows around the world have really helped me face that and gain some confidence. Although I still get major butterflies."


So, album due, this is good, although I hope it isn't as serious as she threatens - we'd all appreciate maybe something more "solid-sounding" than what she'd done up to now (but see below), if she can channel that punchy je ne sais quoi that's on Justice's The Party, which is really her track, it'll be great.

I find the note about confidence quite interesting - her vocal style seems to have this kind of waver to it, which makes it unique, which maybe has something to do with that. I don't know.

Who else wants an Uffie album and what would they want to hear from it?
 
  
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